This is going to be a week to focus on Democratic gubernatorial candidates Chris Bell and Bob Gammage. Philip Martin at BOR will be doing his 40/40 coverage on them - he gives the coming attractions here. If you can't wait until tomorrow for his interviews, get started today with this one at Political State Report by Vince Leibowitz. There will be a part two of this one up tomorrow. I'll update this post when it is. I sadly doubt that any newspaper will do something similar, so check these out and get to know your candidates.
Posted by Charles Kuffner on February 07, 2006 to Election 2006 | TrackBackBob Gammage spoke to the Harris County Democrats conference on Saturday. (I was also among the speakers.) I was disappointed, but not distressed.
I've had my doubts about Chris Bell ever since his first run for congress. His campaigns always seem very image-oriented and his legislating skills always seem a little thin. He has never been in the executive branch to my knowledge.
So I was glad when Bob Gammage stepped up, maybe he'd be a great alternative. But his speech to the Harris County Democrats was basically, "I was a reformer once, I'll be one again today." Which is fine, but he lacked the charisma and content that I'd like to see in someone who is going to need to convince the media that a Democratic challenge for governor is meaningful.
Also he gave very little sense of why he'd make a good Governor. Which is too bad because if he's the nominee, then the audience he was speaking with had a lot of the people he needed to relay the message.
Nick Lampson spoke, too, and it was the best I've ever seen from him. But that's for another thread . . .
Posted by: John D. Wilson on February 7, 2006 11:50 AMI was at the same HCD workshop. While I think everyone takes in an event differently, I think everyone that I have talked with was very impressed with Bob Gammage and his populist reform platform. My favorite line was concerning education, where Bob fired, "How can you expect excellence when you don't even pay for mediocrity." Gammage got the only standing ovation up until that point. I was impressed.
Posted by: Bill on February 7, 2006 3:38 PM